Everything I've written here is hereby placed in the public domain. The quotes from other people's writings, and the
pictures used might or might not be copyrighted, but are considered fair use. Thus the license here would best be
described as:Primarily Public Domain.

15 Jul 2003 @ 11:17
I don't know about you all, but I am not very good at "goodbye's", especially when I know that I am going to see the person again. That is how I felt about Ming moving to France with his family.

I guess we will not have the opportunity to do spontaneous walks at the duckpond and phone calls are a bit more expensive, but I can still email and icq just as I have been doing all along.

Love does not change when distance does. Synchronicity lives and loves now with Jewelsin Glastonbury, England , Ming in France and me with my partner, Raymond in Ojai, CA.

So Jewels, see you in next friday! And Ming see you in a few months.

Oh by the way, I got a flat tire leaving your going away party! Hope you got out of town safe and sound!

4 Jul 2003 @ 10:51
I use to love celebrating this day when I was a child growing up in America. A day of good company, good food, fireworks at night and a midnight swim.

Now I wonder at the complexity of life and the paradox of feelings that arise in me about this day. Not only does this day represent Freedom from British Rule for the American Colonies, it also represents the Freedom of the Philippines from America as one of its colonies. The bittersweet irony of the day.

In 1946 America gave freedom to the Philippine people:

U.S. Proclamation of Philippines Independence, 1946

PROCLAMATION OF PHILIPPINES INDEPENDENCE

Washington, D.C., July 4, 1946

By the President of the United States of America

[Text is from the Bulletin of the Department of State. Washington, D.C., July 14, 1946]

A PROCLAMATION

WHEREAS the United States of America by the Treaty of Peace with Spain of December 10, 1898, commonly known as the Treaty of Paris. and by the Treaty with Spain of November 7, 1900, did acquire sovereignty over the Philippines. and by the Convention of January 2, 1930, with Great Britain did delimit the boundary between the Philippine Archipelago and the State of North Borneo; and

WHEREAS the United States of America has consistently and faith- fully during the past forty-eight years exercised jurisdiction and control over the Philippines and its people; and

WHEREAS it has been the repeated declaration of the legislative and executive branches of the Government of the United States of America that full independence would be granted the Philippines as soon as the people of the Philippines were prepared to assume - this obligation; and

WHEREAS the people of the Philippines have clearly demonstrated. their capacity for self-government; and

WHEREAS the Act of Congress approved March 24, 1934, known as the Philippine Independence Act. directed that on the 4th Day of July immediately following a ten-year transitional period leading to the independence of the Philippines. the President of the United States of America should by proclamation withdraw and surrender all rights of possession. supervision. jurisdiction, control. or sovereignty of the United States of America in and over the territory and people of the Philippines. except certain reservations therein or thereafter authorized to be made and on behalf of the United States of America. should recognize the independence of the Philippines:

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Harry S. Truman, President of the United States of America, acting under and by virtue of the authority vested in me by the aforesaid act of Congress, do proclaim that, in accord with and subject To the reservations provided for in the applicable statutes of the United States,

The United States of America hereby withdraws and surrenders all rights of possession, supervision, jurisdiction, control, or sovereignty now existing and exercised by the United States of America in and over the territory and people of the Philippines; and,

On beha1f of the United States of America, 1 do hereby recognize the independence of the Philippines as a separate and se1f-governing nation and acknowledge the authority and control over the same of the government instituted by the people thereof, under the constitution now in force.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF , I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States of America To be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this Fourth day of July in the year of our Lord, nineteen hundred and forty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and seventy-first.

Take a look here for some very good information regarding Philipine History, the land and the people.

Moving beyond the past, not to forget, but to know what is and begin a new day, a new way with vision and commitment to a sustainable future for all. Today I am grateful to celebrate freedom. In a way it is celebrating me...my ancestors and the ancestors of the land I live on.

1 Mar 2003 @ 19:11
Oh my, where does the time go? Seems the days fly by before I find myself blogging again. Raymond posted a rant about the challenge of being the last land line in our canyon. Makes blogging a slow process.

When I read articles like this one from Rebecca's Pocket or from Julie, I am more inclined to find time. Well and of course Ming always has something to read that sparks my thoughts.

"Align yourself with the universe. Mythical winter as rest and regeneration. Poems/Holydays and stories from Grandmother Moon and Grandmother of Time. The whole CD floats on the beautiful choral works of Bela Bartok and the Hungarian Women's Chorus from Gyor."

She is the founding mother of the Dianic Tradition which began in Los Angeles, CA on Winter Solstice night 1971. When Z moved north to the SF Bay area, she ordained Ruth Rhiannon Barrett to stand at center. Ruth was with the Los Angeles Community, Circle of Aradia, for twenty years before moving to Madison, Wi. Ruth along with Falcon River co-founded The Temple of Diana.

Before leaving the Los Angeles area, Ruth ordained Holin Badger Shubad, who stands center at Arachne's Grove and me. I stands center at Circle of Aradia. Amazing to think that COA entered our 32nd year of serving women in the greater Los Angeles Community.

Oh dear, seems I have done my own Goddess Monologue...Anyway check out Z's new CD.

20 Feb 2003 @ 16:31
This post has been reprinted here with permission of the Author, Vicki Noble, co-creatix of the Motherpeace Tarot Deck.

Dear Motherpeace Friend:

As many of you know, for years now (since the spring of 1995) I have been enthusiastically tracking a weather phenomenon that scientists have named "Sprites" and "Blue Jets." These huge columnar light-shows were recorded a decade ago as they were appearing in front of airplane pilots
at 33,000 feet. (I have been viewing them for the last year or two in moving video images on the Discovery website, among others.)

When I read about Sprites and Blue Jets in a newspaper piece in 1995, I was floored, because for me it sounded like a physical display of giant Dakinis, as they are desribed in Tibetan Buddhism. Many people do Tibetan Buddhist dakini practices everyday to invoke and invite the Dakinis into our lives for protection, good health and longevity not only for oneself but for everyone on the planet. When Dakinis are perceived in visualization, they frequently whirl in as vase-shaped whirling tornadoes or waterspouts--in other words, in long "columnar" shapes. Scientists describe the Sprites ("red, mushroom-shaped electrical discharges") and Blue Jets ("blue electrical discharges branching upwards from the tops of thunderclouds") as if they are dancing. Dakinis are almost always depicted as dancing. Vajrayogini, Queen of the tantric (transformational) Tibetan Buddhist school known as Vajrayana, is red. Thröma, the Black Dakini who cuts llusions with her crescent knife and brings enlightenment in a flash, is described as "blazing blue-black." Mayumi Oda's painting of the Black Dakini can be seen on the cover of my book, Shakti Woman: Feeling Our Fire, Healing Our World (The New Female Shamanism) which came out in 1991 from HarperSF.

On Candlemas morning--Saturday, February 1st--the NASA space shuttle disintegrated on its way back into the earth's atmosphere, as I'm sure you all know. The seven astronauts on board all died. I was teaching at New College in San Francisco that morning and I heard the news on the way to my class. I thought immediately that it was an "oracle," rather than just an "accident," since it happened on one of the Goddess's holy cross-quarter days. I felt that we were supposed to rethink the space program, and that the Dakinis had somehow intervened with this message. The fact that this was one of very few shuttles that NASA sends up in space WITHOUT nuclear substances on board suggested a kind of intelligent benevolence in the delivery of the message. Clearly, the disaster could have been SO much worse. More >

I sometimes view life as a complex woven tapestry of time, events and relationships being cocreated. Imagine a huge pair of scissors slicing into the fabric of time exposing layers of lives and love delicately interlaced. Threads of synchronicity are exposed. The scenes, events and people detailed here are colored by the filter of my perception,as I pull the threads of each life onto paper into words. What is chronicled here is skewed by my herstory and viewed from the edge of time. December 14, 1997